Measuring the sustainability of well‑being over time

What are the factors that can shape well‑being in the future? How do the choices that we make today affect the options for future generations? These are complex but important issues. Policy-makers, citizens and organisations need information about what sustains well‑being over time, to help guide decision-making in the present. This chapter focuses on four types of resources (or capital) that can be measured today, and that matter for future well‑being: economic, natural, human, and social capital. It argues that these resources should be monitored through a dashboard of indicators, including measures that can capture stocks of capital, their distribution, and some of the factors that can cause them to increase and decrease over time. This dashboard of indicators should be developed to complement the dashboard of current well‑being outcomes in How’s Life? enabling us to assess today’s well‑being in the context of the resources left for future generations.